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Time for the fourth last post from the travel archives of Sherri Matthews who has taken us to Lake Garda, a traquil village in Normandy and to Jersey during wartime occupation. Today she takes us to Croatia and the beautiful streets of the old City Dubrovnik.

Over at the Daily Post, the Weekly Photo Challenge for this week is ‘Street Life’. Cheri puts the challenge to us in this way:

‘For this challenge, document the movement (or stillness) of a street: tell a story with your snapshot, capture a scene that reveals a bit about a place, or simply show us where you live — or a path you often take.’

With this in mind, here is my story entitled, ‘The Streets of Old City Dubrovnik’.

The beautiful country of Croatia (once part of Yugoslavia together with Bosnia and Slovenia until declaring independence in the 1990s) is home to the Old City of Dubrovnik. Otherwise famously known as ‘The Pearl of the Adriatic’, this medieval walled city is nestled on the Dalmatian coast; from the 13th century onwards it became an important Mediterranean sea power.

Dubrovnik is home to beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries and palaces, all of which were severely damaged by an earthquake in 1667 and then again in more modern times by the Serbian attack against the city in 1991.

After a ceasefire was called, and due to its great concern for the damage done, UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) named Dubrovnik a ‘World Heritage Site in Danger’ and immediately coordinated a major restoration programme. Click here to read more about this programme and for a more comprehensive history of the Old City.

We were privileged to have been able to visit Dubrovnik in 2012.

Approaching by a narrow, twisting road which drops down to the Old City and its hidden streets, I was able to take this shot. This was the moment when I first caught sight of it, having been blocked by the tree-lined road until then. Stunned into silence, I immediately understood why Dubrovnik is known as ‘The Pearl of the Adriatic’.

My photo doesn’t do it justice, it is simply breathtaking.

The Pearl of the Adriatic – Old City Dubrovnik taken from the road above. Look at that sea! (c) Sherri Matthews 2014

Once inside the city, climbing the city walls gives a magnificent view of the rooftops. The buildings seem to be hiding the streets as if protecting them, closing in on themselves. What secrets lie there I wonder, what stories are to be told?

View of the Old City of Dubrovnik taken from the city walls. Notice the Clock Tower (c) Sherri Matthews 2014

Climbing back down from the city walls, you can get a closer view of the streets below, beckoning to be explored.

View of the streets below from the Old City Walls, Dubrovnik(c) Sherri Matthews 2014

My thanks to Sherri for sharing her travels with us and I do recommend that you check out her archives for her other posts..

About Sherri Matthews

While bringing her memoir, Stranger in a White Dress, to publication, Sherri is published online and in print magazines and anthologies with memoir, essays, poetry and flash fiction. Her short story, ‘A Walk in the Woods’, is published in Prima Magazine, and two of her short memoir entries are longlisted with FISH Publications. Sherri raised her children in California for twenty years before returning to her home in England, where she lives today in the West Country with her husband, Aspie youngest and their pet menagerie fondly called ‘Animal Farm’. Sherri keeps out of mischief gardening, walking and snapping endless photographs, the better ones of which, along with her (mis)adventures, she shares on her blog, A View From My Summerhouse

Here are the anthologies that Sherri has contributed to. Click the covers to buy.

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About Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

My name is Sally Cronin and I am doing what I love.. Writing. Books, short stories, Haiku and blog posts. My previous jobs are only relevant in as much as they have gifted me with a wonderful filing cabinet of memories and experiences which are very useful when putting pen to paper. I move between non-fiction health books and posts and fairy stories, romance and humour. I love variety which is why I called my blog Smorgasbord Invitation and you will find a wide range of subjects. You can find the whole story here.
Find out more at https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/about-me/

56 thoughts on “Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – Travel – ‘The Streets of Old City Dubrovnik’ by Sherri Matthews”

Hi Sally! Thank you so much for keeping my travel posts going all this time despite my absence. You are a treasure, I’ve been so delighted with all the lovely and interesting comments and the connections made. It’s reminded me how much I enjoy writing travel posts, and also how grateful I am for the opportunity to have visited these amazing places. I’m on a catch up now and hope to get back on track soon. Big hugs! 🙂 ❤

So glad you enjoyed it Carol, thanks so much for your lovely comment 🙂 My eldest son and his girlfriend had visited a couple of years before and inspired us with their enthusiasm for Croatia, particularly the ‘Old City’ Dubrovnik, and we were not disappointed. Loved the charm and character of this ‘old Europe’ 🙂

I did Sherri and it is lovely when a place lives up to your expectations isn’t it?? I wish I had travelled around Europe a bit more than I have but probably won’t now I will have to live vicariously through others 🙂 x

It really is Carol, and Dubrovnik certainly did that 🙂 Aww, I feel the same way about my time living in California (almost 20 years, brought up my family there). In all that time, I did travel the length and breadth (and width!) extensively and branched out here and there, but despite so much wanting to go to Hawaii, I never did. Can you believe I lived in CA all that time and never got to Hawaii? Then again, I’m a Brit born and bred, and not until a few years ago did I make it to beautiful Scotland. And despite my grandmother being Irish, I have yet to visit that equally stunning country. Time I did, eh Sally?! 😉 So totally agree Carol, there’s alot to be said for ‘armchair travellling’ 🙂 xx

What exquisite photos! Sherri has such a knack for capturing beautiful photos on her travels. I’d love to go there some day. My best friend San is from Yugoslavia, so I appreciated seeing about the beauty she talks about. 🙂 ❤ xxx

Aww…thanks so much Deb! I’m thrilled you enjoyed the pics so much 🙂 I point and shoot lol! I remember in the 70’s people talking about going on holiday to Yugoslavia (it must have been ‘the place’ to be) and saying how beautiful it was. I never thought twice about it – eyes firmly fixed on California, ha! – but roll on the years. and there I was, with hubby. Now I know why everybody raved about it! I didn’t know your San was from there…wonderful! 🙂 ❤ xoxo

Yes! She she was born there. Her parents were from opposite sides of the fence – one Croation and one Serbian! They got out in time. Now she lives in Canterbury for over 20 years, so you both have great access to visit so many beautiful places in Europe. ❤ xo

Wow Deb, how fascinating, what an incredible family history! So glad they got out in time. It is wonderful having access to Europe, I admit. Of course, with Brexit looming, who knows what the future holds. But let’s not go there. Crazy times but that won’t stop us, right my friend? 🙂 ❤ xoxo

It is a common clay with red colourant in most of the countries and the terracotta tiles help keep the house cool in the summer months, slate is not so readily available in Spain and Portugal and the other Mediterranean countries.. xxxx

Reblogged this on A View From My Summerhouse and commented:
While I’ve been away, lovely Sally Cronin has featured weekly the remaining three of my travel posts for her Archive Travel Series: Strolling through ‘A Most Beautiful Village of France’ in Normandy and finding sweet solace in a tiny, ancient chapel; breathtaking Jersey and a day at the ‘War Tunnels’; and this week, the last of the four, in historical and stunning Old City Dubrovnik, in Croatia (and a link to a Cats of Croatia post…couldn’t resist).

Thank you so much for the visits and lovely comments awaiting me upon my return from my holiday. It’s wonderful how sharing old posts forms new connections, filling the Summerhouse with lively discussion through shared discoveries and adventures. Travel is a wonderful thing, and I am beyond thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to travel to such places, but they are even more wonderful when shared with you.

Thank you so much to Sally for this wonderful and incredibly generous opportunity and sharing my posts far and wide. Sally invites all to join in, and is a lovely way to meet new bloggers, re-share old posts to a new audience and learn great travel tips!

In her own words, Sally invites all to join in:

‘The aim of this series is to showcase your blog and any creative work that you do from books, art, photography and crafts. You pick between one and four links to posts that you have written for your own blog since you began blogging up to October 2017 and you simply send the link to those blogs to sally.cronin@moyhill.com

You have to do nothing more as I will capture the post and images from your blog and I will then post with full copyright to you.. with your creative work and your links to buy and to connect. I might sometimes need a little more information but I am quite resourceful in finding out everything I need.

The deal is that you also help promote the post by sharing on your social media and responding to the comments.

Speaking of great travel tips, lovely memoir author D G Kay (Debby Gies) is sharing hers with us at ‘The Travel Column’, her new regular feature, over at Sally’s blog. For openers, if you’re going on a cruise anytime soon, you need to read this! And a huge thank you also to Debby for such generous sharing of Sally’s travel series and my posts in my absence.

Back to writing then, and will post here soon with new travel tales and adventures from my recent, prize holiday with hubby at the sparkling Almalfi Coast. Including, but not limited to, an extraordinary encounter with an Al Pacino lookalike on a wild taxi ride along back-to-back hairpins while rummaging around for a Chaka Khan CD. The taxi driver, not us. Ahh…Mama Mia Italia!

Thank YOU Sally. The least I can do, and I hope that you get lots of response, as you are amazing helping so many bloggers connect and share and promote. I love spending time at your place, and will look forward to more visits! ❤ 🙂 ❤ xxx

I was lucky enough to visit Yugoslavia before the civil war. We stayed in becici montenegró and visited Dubrovnik. I fell in love with this beautiful city and cried when the wars started and saw the city on fire. It’s a beautiful place and I would love to visit again. xxx

Hi Adele, how wonderful you got to visit Yugoslavia at that time. It became popular with visitors from the UK in the 70’s, but I had no idea what to expect when it finally came to be my turn to visit, long after the dreadful wars. It’s beauty never leaves you, nor the very human stories as depicted within the Old City walls as you walk around ancient buildings, learning it’s history. I hope you do visit again. Thanks so much for your comment xxx

Sorry not sure in what context.. usually it means the first list before contestants become shortlisted for an award etc. My email is in the post under Sherri’s longer comment and look forward to hearing from you. best wishes Sally